Summary
finding plaintiff's Section 740 claim was properly dismissed when defendant's "alleged wrongdoing may have presented a danger to the health or safety of [an] individual patient, but did not threaten the health or safety of the public at large"
Summary of this case from Frank v. Walgreens Co.Opinion
July 12, 1989
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Monroe County, Patlow, J.
Present — Doerr, J.P., Denman, Boomer, Balio and Lawton, JJ.
Order and judgment unanimously affirmed without costs. Memorandum: The court properly dismissed plaintiff's claim under Labor Law § 740, the "whistleblower statute", in its entirety. Under any reasonable reading of the statute and under any view of the facts of this case, defendant's alleged violations of law, if any, did not create and present a substantial and specific danger to the public health and safety (Labor Law § 740; see, Vella v United Cerebral Palsy, 141 Misc.2d 976, 978; see also, Givens, Practice Commentaries, McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 30, Labor Law § 740, at 546-547). Defendant's alleged illegalities consisted, at most, of neglect of a certain patient, failure to report an incident of patient neglect, improper deletion of an entry concerning such incident, and an improper attempt to persuade plaintiff to change her entry to delete reference to the incident. Defendant's alleged wrongdoing may have presented a danger to the health or safety of the individual patient, but did not threaten the health or safety of the public at large.